July 23, 2015

Hello little blog. I'm sorry for neglecting you.
I know I have been spending way too much time on Instagram lately. And also I've been crafting like a maniac, because in a few weeks I'm doing a craft fair!
Well, it's a tiny market really. I think. It's new so I have no idea how big it will be.
Anyway, just wanted to show a little something (the first of a lot more I hope) I made recently. I was seeing all the lovely embroidered hoops everywhere and after some doubts I finally started making my own. They are so much fun to make!
They would look lovely in any nursery and make the perfect personal gift for any parent-to-be, embroidered with the baby's name and (optional) date of birth etc.
I am now considering selling custom name hoops on my Etsy shop; not sure how to go about that though. Any tips?

I finished this little fellow! (WIP photos here)
It started as a little experiment but I like the result so much I decided to frame it and hopefully someday it will get to be on display in my craft room. Imaginary craft room, that is.

I started with a little scrap of wool felt. I randomly placed some scrap wool roving and lightly needle felted it to the surface. It started to look like a landscape to me so I embroidered the birds and the fence. Then it started to become a garden so I embroidered the edges of the path and needle felted the natural wool to resemble gravel. Then came the french knot (or colonial knot; I don't remember) flower beds, and last came the vegetable patch.

I love it! I feel unreasonably proud of this little thing actually *grins*
I think the combination of techniques and materials worked really well. The needle felted wool has a slightly transparant look, not unlike watercolor. And the whole thing has great texture too.
The scale is a little off though; it's too big to be turned into a brooch and too small to be anything else. So I sewed it into a picture frame to make it easier to display.

I will be experimenting further with this. Maybe next time I will try adding fabric to the mix.

Button necklaces!
They are really easy to make, and so much fun! You could easily make these with kids too. Just choose some pretty buttons and string them. I used waxed cotton cord in matching colors, but you could use yarn, linen, hemp or silk if you're feeling super fancy. The hardest part is choosing the buttons!
I used a mixture of new buttons and vintage ones. Some of those are quite old and I think some might be bakelite. They get to stand out now, instead of being buried in the bottom of my button jars.

Hello there :) I am happy to *finally* be able to invite you to my Instagram feed!
My phone hated the IG app but eventually I convinced it to make it work. So that's where I have been these past few days. I am still discovering some of the features but I like that it is simple and fast, so I expect to be posting lots of WIP-shots there.
So if you would like to, come have a look! Leave your name in the comments if you would like me to do the same. I am @audrey_studiopaars over there.

Anyway. I did a little embroidery inspired by this post on the wonderful Feeling Stitchy blog. This is called the Couched Filling Stitch and it is very easy - follow the link to their post for a very detailed tutorial.
I used some gingham fabric (which also meant I didn't need to draw any lines) and played with multocoloured thread.